People forced to leave carpool lot where they lived for months For months now, people on the verge of homelessness have been living in a carpool lot at Townline Road near Highway 401 in Cambridge. That changed on Aug. 5 when the Ministry of Transportation showed up with private security and tow trucks to remove the fleet of RVs and trailers that were using the site as a safe refuge. “We got notice five days ago that all the trailers had to be moved out of the parking lot because someone gave a complaint against the parking lot,” said a woman named Debbie who had been living at the lot. The notice said, in part, “Maintenance staff of the Ministry of Transportation has identified your vehicle as being unattended, abandoned or a non-commuting motor vehicle.” It went on to say the parking lots were not intended for long-term storage of vehicles or trailers. The lots also have signs posted saying vehicles left for longer than 120 consecutive hours will be tagged and towed. “Which I don’t understand, because no one here did anything wrong,” Debbie said. “It was a quiet area. We cleaned up after ourselves. We’re working people and stuff like that, so I can’t see what the complaint was.” Others, however, had a different view of the situation. “If they were clean and tidy, I guarantee nobody would complain if they were doing their own business,” Kevin, a man who lives nearby, told CTV News. “Clean and tidy, kept everything organized. But they don’t, right - like they just don’t. That’s my problem.” While some of the trailer owners left over the last few days, others agreed to be towed by the morning of Aug. 5. Some of the trailer owners said they couldn’t afford the fees needed to take their vehicles to a campsite, leaving them with no other legal options. Trailer owners are now left to look for a new place to park, with the prospect of living at an encampment is a very real possibility. Police trying to identify people involved in bank card fraud in Kitchener The Waterloo Regional Police have released images of two people who may be involved in a bank card fraud. Investigators received a report about the incident on Aug. 1. They were told the card was fraudulently used by two suspects who were trying to buy more than $400 worth of goods from a business on Highland Road West. Police want to identify and speak with the people in the pictures. New bowling alley owners prepare for reopening of Frederick Lanes To prepare for a grand reopening of a beloved bowling alley, the new co-owners of Frederick Lanes hosted a friends and family night. The pair who often bowled at AMF Frederick Lanes before it closed were determined to keep the community gathering space open. “It’s kind of weird to have done all this work for so many months and now have it have people in the lanes,” said Kassandra Ahlin, one of the new owners. “There’s a satisfaction that so many people have come up to us saying ‘thank you’, and that part is nice,” added fellow co-owner Mason Tikl. Before welcoming the public back to the lanes, some much-needed repairs were made to the alley, including to the building’s ceiling. “Many of the ceiling tiles that we were replaced were yellow and not from water stains. That was actually from cigarette stains from when they would smoke in here,” Tikl explained. The building’s facelift also included refreshing the games in the arcade room. But the pair didn’t have to tackle the task list alone. Many members of the bowling community stepped up to help repair the beloved bowling alley. One of them was Alder Smith, a bowler who often frequented the lanes before the closure in May. “I had got in contact with [Mason], and was doing some plumbing work for him through the bowling alley,” Smith told CTV News. With much anticipation for the broader community to return to the bowling lanes, the new owners said the nostalgia has remained throughout the transformation. The official reopening took place on Aug. 7. Kitchener man faces up to 30 years in prison for international hacking conspiracy A man from Kitchener, Ont., has pleaded guilty to being part of a massive international data breach involving “extremely sensitive information.” On Aug. 5, the United States Department of Justice announced 26-year-old Connor Moucka, also known as Alexander Moucka, had pleaded guilty following his arrest in Kitchener in October 2024. He was extradited to the United States in July 2025. “Connor Moucka hacked over 150 companies and organizations, obtained extremely sensitive information, and extorted the victims for millions of dollars,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a news release. While no companies were specifically named in court documents previously obtained by CTV News, experts said the details matched a hack involving customers of Snowflake, a cloud-based data storage company based in the U.S. AT&T, Live Nation, Ticketmaster and Advance Auto Parts were among the companies that admitted they were affected by the Snowflake breach. Moucka pleaded guilty to computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and a related conspiracy. He will be sentenced on Oct. 27. He faces between two and 30 years in prison. The U.S. Department of Justice said Moucka and co-conspirators used stolen login details to compromise cloud-hosted data belonging to at least 165 companies and organizations between February and October 2024. Some of the information taken included non-content call and text history, banking details, payroll records, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration numbers, driver’s licence numbers, passport numbers and social security numbers. Those details were then used in an extortion scheme where the perpetrators threatened to publish the information if their victims didn’t comply with their demands. “The conspirators profited from the scheme, receiving over $2.5 million in ransom payments,” the news release said. “In at least one instance, Moucka re-extorted a victim with threats of further disclosure of the victim’s stolen data. Moucka used the stolen data of a government officer and members of a then-former government officer’s immediate family in this re-extortion attempt.” The Department of Justice also said Moucka sold information on cybercrime forums and personally received at least $495,000 in payments. Meanwhile, the companies affected reported more than $9.6 million in losses. “[A] guilty plea sends a clear message to cybercriminals: you cannot hide from justice, no matter how hard you may try to cover your tracks,” said W. Mike Herrington, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Connor Moucka’s threats and re-extortion tactics were calculated and predatory, and his actions did real harm to his victims, be they companies targeted for theft and extortion or the millions of everyday people who are their customers.” Tornado warning issued for parts of Waterloo Region A tornado warning was issued for parts of Waterloo Region on Aug. 8 as a series of severe thunderstorms brought heavy rain, strong winds and flooding to the area. The warning was issued as Environment Canada meteorologists tracked a severe thunderstorm that was possibly producing a tornado over Orr’s Lake and moving east at approximately 30 km/h toward the Galt area. The alert warned that damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall were also possible. Tornado warnings are issued when a thunderstorm is producing or is likely to produce a tornado.
